


quiet sleep and a sweet dream

by MomentsOfWeakness



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, I tagged it as Widofjord, I wrote it with that in mind, M/M, but you could definitely read it as gen if you want, but...like...barely?, minor spoilers for 2x33, the rest of the Nine are mentioned but not focused on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 14:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15951047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MomentsOfWeakness/pseuds/MomentsOfWeakness
Summary: “So maybe you…stay this time?”It was a casual question and it had received a casual answer. “Yeah.”Fjord's answer stuck with Caleb for a long time.





	quiet sleep and a sweet dream

**Author's Note:**

> Two and a half years since I posted my last fic and I come back with a whole new fandom. Ah, well. I've got a campaign one fic kicking my ass and another sort-of-Widofjord-but-really-just-feelings focused fic that got to 90% done and went on vacation. So I guess my brain thought it would give me a break and let me start and finish something all in one night.
> 
> This was prompted by that sweet little conversation they had in the ocean and the thought of what Fjord's answer meant for the rest of the Nine. (Edit: Got jossed after the M9 decided to *spoilers* accidentally become pirates, but whatever.)
> 
> Title I stole from John Masefield's poem 'Sea Fever' because titles are the worst but naming stories 'just read it please' died in the early '00s. God I'm old. Enjoy!

_“So maybe you…stay this time?”_

It was a casual question and it had received a casual answer. _“Yeah.”_

Just like that. Finish his quest and settle down, like it was easy. Yeah.

Maybe it was supposed to be, Caleb wondered as they fell asleep that night in their separate rooms. Nott was still curled up with him, but Jester was with her mother and the others were all alone in their opulent beds. Even Beau, who had eyed the other courtesans as they were seen to the sleeping quarters earlier, had only given the beautiful women that awkward half-smile she had before shutting her bedroom door. Today had been…a lot, and tomorrow would be just as much.

Now Caleb was tossing and turning on the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in while the conversation he had with Fjord in the water earlier that day played over and over again in his mind.

_“I think a calm life on the water would suit me just fine.”_

Caleb remembers what a calm, quiet life is like though sometimes he desperately wished he didn’t.

_“I would live right on the water if I could.”_

Caleb could imagine the crash of the waves as an ever present comfort filtering in through the windows on warm, dark nights. He could see the glint of the sun on the sea as it rose every morning, feel the coolness of the water as it lapped at his bare toes while he sipped his tea and the sky turned pink then orange they bright, pale blue.

_“You took to it very well.”_

He wondered if he could make a life here, far from all the places that reminded him of home, of Trent, of his old friends.

“Caleb, get some sleep. We have work to do tomorrow and it might be dangerous. You need to rest.”

“Yes, Nott. Es tut mir Leid.” He sighed deeply and pulled the blankets up farther over his bare shoulders. “Gute Nacht.” [I'm sorry. Good night.]

“Goodnight, Caleb.”

The words kept playing through his mind even as he finally drifted off to sleep.

_“So maybe you stay this time?”_

_“Yeah.”_

***

But he didn’t. Not that time, or the time after, or the time after.

Things just…progressed with them. One job led to a lead that they had to follow which led to another job which led to…

On and on they went, never really stopping for long. They made it to Port Demali and back to Nicodranas. They found some answers and more questions. Yasha came and went. One month was spent in the Empire, another dangerously close to Xhorhas. Things just…moved.

But they moved together; helping each other, watching each other’s backs. No one left. Not even Caleb. Not even when the memories got bad or when the desire to fix what he had done became so great he thought he would burst from his own skin. He didn’t leave and neither did they and they just kept moving together.

Once they even made it to the ocean itself; boarded a boat in a small port city for Tal’Dorei on an important mission that, like with many others they had taken on, seemed far too dangerous and beyond their league. But here they were.

Three weeks on a boat - A ship, Caleb. It’s a ship, Fjord said for the hundredth time. - and their stalwart half-orc was radiant with pride and joy. (Caleb knew it was called a ship, but he liked the exasperated smile he got from Fjord every time he called it a boat.)

During their long trip Fjord took to teaching them all about sailing. He taught Nott how to tie and untie knots, partly because it was ironic but also because he thought it was something someone like her should know, and showed Beau how to nimbly slip up and down the various nets and masts until she was able to beat even the most experienced sailors in a race.

Jester he showed how to use the eyeglass because it fascinated her and he even let her talk him into teaching her some of the naughtier songs he had learned in his years on the sea. Poor Caduceus, who spent most of the trip in the bunks down below looking a little more green than gray, he took a cup of soothing tea regularly every few hours and promised to show him where to find the various plants and herbs to make it when they reached shore.

It was easy to see that Fjord was in his element here. Not necessarily physically. He found himself on the end of a lot of teasing from the other sailors for being a half-orc that could barely outmatch a bookworm like Caleb in strength, but when Jester and Nott got upset on his behalf he promised them he didn’t mind. His old crew had given him the same ribbing, he told them, and it made him feel at home.

“Every ship needs a learned man, you see,” he explained one day as he was charming some of the crew out of their hard-earned wages in a card game. “Otherwise the ship will never prosper. You need someone who knows the value of what you carry, not just how much it weighs or how hard it is to haul. You need someone who can talk to the quartermaster at any port and fetch a fair price or talk to the locals and find the best supplies or the best places to spend your coin.”

He said this as he swept a decent pile of gold and silver into his own small pouch, his smile and wit the only thing keeping the three sailors from objecting to the loss.

“A ship can’t sail without people to haul the mainstay or batten down the hatches in a storm,” he assured them. “But it won’t ever leave the dock without merchandise to sell or a destination to go to.”

But his true passion it seemed was for navigation; being able to look up at the stars in the blackness of night and know exactly where they were in the vast, deep ocean.

Caleb envied him that from the start. He had a keen sense for always knowing what direction they were going, but to be able to see those tiny pinpricks of light and know exactly how far they had come and how much longer they needed to go, to be able to tell if they had drifted a few leagues off course in the heavy winds and just what angle they needed to steer to in order to right their course…that was a true talent.

“Nah, that’s not talent, that’s knowledge,” Fjord said on their third night into the journey. He and Caleb stood at the bow of the ship as darkness settled in and the moon rose high into the sky. “Anyone can learn it if they want to.”

Caleb’s face must have given him away because Fjord gave him that gentle smile he seemed to reserve for urchin children and his friends when they were being particularly adorable.

“Do you…want to learn?” he asked, standing just a little too close so he could be heard over the ever-present din of the ocean and the sailors on deck.

Caleb felt the blush slide all the way to his collar but hoped the dim light of the moon didn’t show it. They all knew by now that he hungered for knowledge constantly; not just for magic but history, science, anything he hadn't already learned he desired to. “Ja. That…that would be…nice.”

Fjord smiled a little wider and stepped a little closer, and for the rest of their trip the two of them could be found out on the deck after sunset with charts in hand and Fjord’s low, sensuous voice carefully teaching Caleb how to navigate the stars. The half-orc’s hands may not be as strong as most people assume them to be, but for three weeks Caleb was fascinated by lithe fingers and dark green skin as Fjord pointed out the best way to track their progress across the water.

The trip back home needed to be a little speedier. Fjord’s disappointment when they stepped into the transportation circle they had paid good money (and a bit of blackmail) to use was palpable. When they arrived on the other side in the heart of the Empire - hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean - Caleb had bumped his shoulder gently as they headed toward their next destination.

“You’ll get back soon, ja?”

“Yeah,” Fjord sighed wistfully and bumped Caleb back, knocking him a little off balance. “Yeah, we will.”

 _Yeah_ , he always seemed to say. Like it was so easy.

Maybe it was supposed to be.

***

Things didn’t stop moving. They were always finding another thread to follow, another question to seek the answer to. Sometimes they made it to the coast and sometimes all Fjord had was stories to tell the rest of them and a wistful smile as he waited for the next time he’d see his first love.

These days, though, when Caleb lie awake at night and thought about the sea - the crashing waves, the shining sun, the cool water at his feet - he could also hear voices. Laughter behind him, quiet conversations nearby, a low, sensuous voice in his ear as lithe green hands handed him a cup of tea.

_“I think a calm life on the water would suit me just fine.”_

Maybe it would suit the rest of them too. Yeah.


End file.
